Human
by HURRICANE'Hannah
Summary: "Why are you out so late, Human?" He heard a sigh. "Annabelle." "What?" Another sigh, "My name is Annabelle." "Why would I care what your designation is, Human?"


**Pairing(s):** Slight BarricadexAnnabelle Lennox.  
><strong>Character(s): <strong>Main: Barricade and Annabelle Lennox. Mentions: William Lennox, Ratchet, Megatron, Starscream and Mudflap.  
><strong>Setting:<strong> Post ROTF (little over 14 years) Pre _Halloween Scare_. (2 years)  
><strong>Warning(s):<strong> Slight romantic attraction between a Cybertronion and a human of heterosexual nature (depending on how you see Transformer "genders"). May also contain OOC on Barricade's part, however, with regards to the out of characterness, please stop to think how you would react it you were in Barricade's, umm _shoes_. If any of the mentioned bothers you, then please do not read.  
><strong>Words:<strong> 3,385. (Not including Author Notes)  
><strong>Disclaimer:<strong> Transformers and all related characters belong to Hasbro.  
><strong>Inspiration:<strong> I wanted to do a prequel for another fanfiction I wrote called _Halloween Scare_. I have no idea where the urge to do this pairing came from though.  
><strong>Edit:<strong> _April 20, 2011_. I have decided to start writing fanfiction again and I am going to be re-adding some of my old one-shots back onto this site. This one-shot has only undergone some minor spelling/grammar edits.

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><p>"Holy <em>slag<em>, I should have brought a wheelbarrow." Fifteen-year-old Annabelle Lennox commented to herself as she trugged along a deserted street.

It was Halloween night. Darkness had blanketed the entire sky, replacing the crisp blue with the impenetrable black. The moon was large and full as it casted its soft but eerie glow. A few stars twinkled in the clear sky. The night was beautiful and even slightly warm for it being nine at night.

Annabelle was carrying a large pillowcase that was full of candy. Despite her father's claim that she was too old to trick-or-treat and Ratchet's discourages due to the fact that candy held no notorious valve and was destructive to one's teeth, the teen had dressed up as an Egyptian goodness, grabbed her dolphin pillowcase before having Mudflap drive her into town.

She still had two hours before the red twin planned to pick her up, but she couldn't fit much more in her case and her arms were already sore and were turning into jello.

As she struggled to get to the site where Mudflap set to pick her up, she began to walk past an empty warehouse. A small _clang_ made the teen stop dead in her tracks. Normally she would have associated the noise by the wind, but there wasn't even a slight breeze. Then another _clang_ rang out, then another one.

Annabelle knew she should ignore it and keep walking. Unfortunately, her natural curiosity won and she began to tug towards the run down, creaking building.

She carefully walked through the rusted door-frame into the disintegrating factory. Every little noise heightened the teen's growing fear. However, she noticed that the deeper she trugged into the rusted building, the louder the _clangs _became.

The dirty blonde could feel her heartbeat rapidly in her chest. Her palms were beginning to sweat. Every sound, including the _clang_s, made her jump in her skin.

As she grew further into the factory, her nose crinkled when a mix of several odors wafted into her nose. Orders like; mold, stale urine, feces and probably what was a dead animal or two made her want to bend over and vomit.

There wasn't much light except for the soft glow of the some of the moon's light that seeped through the cracks. The air was sour and the dust being to kick up began to irritate her throat.

Her legs and arms were beginning to become extremely sore and stiff. Just when she wanted to give up and turn around, a yellow light caught her eye.

Like a moth drawn to a flame, she began to walk towards the light. The _clanging_ had stopped but now she could hear a slight _scrap_ as someone or _somethin_g shifted across the floors.

She walked through one more doorway before stopping. Right away she couldn't see anything that moved until the light she had been drawn to before shifted above her line of sight.

The teen raised her head and immediately her eyes went wide. The sound of her candy clattering onto the ground echoed throughout the room. The sound drew the attention of the other living soul in the area.

Annabelle Lennox's heart began to beat fiercely in her chest when four; blood red optics intently looked at her tiny form. Her breath was caught in her throat while her mind slowly processed her current situation.

She was standing in the presence of a Decepticon for the first time and it so happened to be the Decepticon hunter Barricade.

Barricade had been in need of repairs after he flipped over a guard rail when local police chased him. He had been hiding from the Autobots for two years. This war was getting old and tiresome. Their leader had abandoned this planet along with Starscream. He was considered a traitor to the Decepticon cause and his punishment was exile on this pathetic planet.

The cop car didn't care as long as he had enough energy to shield his signal from the Autobots. However, this planet was boring him. Sooner or later he was going to get off this rock, but for know he was content to suffer this planet's aspects.

In order to keep a low profile, he had stayed away from humans as much as physically possible. He didn't care. Humans held no interest to him.

Now here he stood, towering above a young femme. The sac she had been carrying had drawn his attention down to her when it had clattered to the ground. He just stared at her. Her eyes were wide and even though the humans were now aware of their existence, it didn't surprise him if she were to faint on the spot.

"Ah _frag_." The femme cursed.

Well, _that_ did surprise him. So, she must be an Autobot human. That was the _last _thing her needed. How was he going to play his out? He couldn't harm her or kill her. The last thing he needed was the entire Autobot army on a blood-lust revenge mission. He could scare her away but she would probably run off and tell her Autobot friends, not good.

The hunter sighed, an unwanted habit he had unwilling picked up from his exposure to the human race. What was he to do? If she would just faint and hit her head she could forgot all about this.

Then what she said next crushed that little hope.

"Are you alright?"

There was fear that dominated her tone but his audios did pick up on something. Was that, _concern_ that was lacing her voice?

The hunter shook his helm slightly, trying to rid him of such nonsense. "Why do you care, _Human_?"

He watched as the teen's posture and facial feature morphed. The fear in her body leaked out and an angry and more determined girl took over. When her hands rested on her hips, the cruiser knew he was about to be lecture…and by a tiny, female human.

"Well excuse me for giving a slag. I happen to be a caring person. I noticed that you are holding a _human _wrench. So I just figured you might need some _human_ help. But no, you have…" Barricade listened as the female ranted on and on. He had to admit, she had guts.

It wasn't often that anyone would give a Decepticons a telling off and he couldn't help but think she had more courage than most within the Decepticon army, including their SIC.

"…forget it. You're just some mean Decepticon who would rather die then admit he needs help." The blonde finished in a huff.

Barricade was stuck. She no longer gave off any indication that she would forget this encounter. And as much as it kicked his Decepticon pride, he did need smaller hands to fit into his cracks to try and find out what was jammed in his left shoulder.

"Very well, I shall accept your assistance." Barricade grunted out.

The human girl froze. He suspected she hadn't even remotely thought that he would accept her request for assistance.

"You're sure?" She asked in an _extremely_ shocked tone of voice.

"Just get over here and help me human before I change my CPU." Barricade lowly growled.

The human quickly snapped into action and ran towards him. He sat on the concrete floor and a small tremor almost knocked the girl onto her back.

Once at him, she just looked at him with her large, sea blue. "Aren't you going to pick me up?"

The hunter internally groaned before placing the useless human tool into the ground. He then roughly grabbed the human by her dress.

"Whoa," The girl let out as her feet were roughly ripped from the floor before being dropped into his shoulder.

He watched as the human rubbed her behind from the hard landing before crawling to the large seam in his shoulder which was riddled with scratches from his attempts to dislodge the foreign object.

He quickly felt her fingers digging into his armor. Then something surprised him. He had already had the predisposition that he would feel disgusted to have a human digging inside his armor. However, the moment her fingers tips gently brushed the wires inside his shoulder, warmth settled into his spark.

With every gentle stroke, the warmth in his spark spread through his circuits. It definitely wasn't arousal, though he knew if she stoked other certain wires like she was, she could have him quivering in overload.

The warmth was peaceful. It almost wanted to make the mech relax. It was as if the warmth from her simple, caring touch was…completing him.

The cruiser shut his optics closed. This mud ball was defiantly getting to him. He had to distract himself from the warmth filling his frame.

"Why did you offer your assistance?" It was the only thing Barricade could think to say.

"Well, you are hurt and you need help. I know this must rattle your Decepticon CPU but I just don't like seeing others in pain." The human stated as she probed deeper into his armor.

The warmth was still strong and pulsating. The cop car quickly tried another attempt. "Why are you out so late, _Human_?"

He heard a sigh. "Annabelle."

"What?"

Another sigh, "My name is _Annabelle_."

"Why would I care what your designation is, _Human_?"

"Fine, whatever," She dismissed before she began to probe deeper into his shoulder wires with her delicate fingers.

A silence was wrapped around the human teen and the Decepticon hunter. Instead of it being awkward like the cruiser had expected, he oddly found the silence…comforting.

"Can I ask you a question?"

His helm snapped over to look at her. He watched as she sat back on her heels. He noticed that the warmth did not disappear with the loss of contact with her fingers. Instead, it just settled into the bottom of his spark

"You just did." He smirked as his snide remark.

He watched her shake her head gently before rolling her eyes. "How come you didn't squash me before?"

Barricade throat wires tightened. He couldn't answer her when he himself was no longer sure of the answer. At first he thought it was because he didn't want the Autobots to paint a blood-lust revenge target on his aft. Now, he was beginning to think he didn't squish her under his foot was because he, not liked her, but was intrigued by her. Or maybe it was because he was subconsciously glad that someone was finally reaching out to him and wasn't afraid to admit they cared.

"You are still of use." He simply stated. "Killing you at that moment would not have been beneficial."

Too late did Barricade realize what his unintentional implications behind his words were. His sensors beeped when her heart rate began to spike at an erratic rate. He could feel her body temperature lower drastically through her hands that lay on his metal. Visually, she had gone virtually stiff and she didn't even blink her eyelids over her wide, sea blue eyes.

"I assure you human, I will not harm you." He began to mentally kick himself for offering the girl comfort. "Killing you fleshbags holds no pleasure for me. Never did."

He knew his words had worked because her heart rate slowed down and her temperature retuned to what it had been originally. She spoke no words but he watched as she leaned forward before feeling her warm fingers probed his shoulder once more.

He _seriously_ needed to get off his dirt planet, especially if his words could easily put a human at ease like this!

Once again, a silence overcame the room's occupants that stretched for five minutes. That was until a startled gasp left Annabelle's lips.

"What?" Barricade asked in a rush.

Her eyes lit up and smile broke out on her face. "I found it!"

Barricade watched as she leaned in further. Her body was flush against his metal and he tried to suppress a shiver that ran through his frame. It had been a _long_ time since anyone had touched him so gently.

He sucked air through his intanks to try and regulate his rapidly pulsing spark. "Tell me what it is."

He felt her probe deeper into the seam for a few minutes. "Is that a…_tree branch_?"

Her unbelievable tone of voice didn't surprise the police cruiser. He wasn't surprised to find out it was something so large. He had crashed through a guard rail and drove through a forest at high speeds in order to avoid the human police force that had been chasing him.

"Pull it out." Barricade commanded.

With no complaint, the teen did as she was told. He felt a scrapping sensation against his metal and heard the teen struggle slightly in removing the large tree branch.

After a final tug, he felt the branch's presence leave his shoulder strut. Annabelle began to fall off his shoulder from the whiplash of her tug. Barricade quickly caught her before she hit the ground; the branch slipped from her hand and fell to the ground.

He was about to reluctantly thank the girl for her assistance but a wet feeling began to cover his shoulder and drip down his chest and left arm.

The cruiser looked at his shoulder and watched as energon began to spill from his shoulder. The orange colored life blood was gushing at a fast past. He began to feel dizzy and weak as more and more energon poured from his body.

His joints began to fail and he quickly laid himself down on his side opposite of the leak. His hand rested on the ground and the human quickly scampered over to his face.

His visual input was getting blurry but he could definitely make out the worried face of the teen. Her mouth began to move but he couldn't hear her words. His systems were shutting down and warning of offlining flashed through his processor.

Normally a leak like this wouldn't have been life-threatening but without a decent medic, his self-repair systems were getting slow and normally took ten minutes to kick in. Barricade figured at the rate the leak was gushing, he would be dead before that.

He went to open his mouth to say something to the human. If only he could…

Darkness took over his consciousness.

xxx

It was like time had been suspended. Nothing moved. There was no sound.

Then suddenly, four crimson optics shot open.

Barricade could feel his systems coming back online. For a split moment, he thought he was in the Pit but when he saw the young teen sitting on the ground, her knees pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head down, he knew he was alive.

He shifted a little and the scuffle drew the attention of the girl. Her head whipped up and her glazed, sea blue eyes locked with his dazed crimson red optics.

When his optical sensors were fully operational and the visual inputs sharpened, he quickly discovered something that muted his vocalizer.

She had been crying.

Though it appeared she had stopped sometime ago, the evidence was clearly still planted on her face. Her nose was beat red, momentarily reminding the Decepticon of the animal human sung about in December. Two clear streaks of her tan skin ran from the bottom of her eyes to her chin on both sides of her face. His audios then picked up on the slight hyperventilation and he caught a few shakes of her body. Even without the fluids leaking from her eyes, she had -and still was- crying.

The sight of the human in such a distressed state did things to his spark that he never thought possible. Part of his spark soared at the prospect that she had been worried about him while the other part of his spark dropped at the notion that _he_ had scared her to this point.

He wanted to say something, anything to help put the girl at ease but he was at a loss of what to say. He never had been in this situation before in his entire existence.

The human must have sensed his dilemma for she stood up and slowly walked towards him. With every step she took, the hunter could see the shaking of her silent sobs. He could feel a small, seer of pain deep in his spark, like his spark was slowly being tarred apart. He didn't like the feelings her expression provoked within him. He had never seen such a broken and destroyed look on _anyone_ before.

She silently moved to his face. Far enough from him that he could still see her entirely with his optics but close enough that he could feel her hot breath on his metal.

"How are you feeling?" Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Without thinking he replied. "Like slag…" He quickly clamped his lip components together when he realized what his snide remark could do to the already damaged girl.

That was why when a sweet smile bloomed across her face; the warmth she had bestowed upon him engulfed his entire frame like wildfire.

She fell to her knees and he heard a relived sigh come out of her mouth. "Thank, _Primus_."

The cruiser smirked before he slowly began to sit up. Only a few small shocks of pain radiated through his pain receptors. Nothing he couldn't ignore for a while. His gaze rested on his shoulder. She must have noticed him do that because her voice spoke up.

"I was able to stop the energon long enough for your self-repair systems to seal the tare. It's completely healed but the line is still weak." She explained.

He looked down at her and was about to ask how she had stopped the leak but quickly noticed something different. The dress she had been wearing had gone from her ankles to the middle of her thighs.

He looked at the next to where the girl had been sitting and laying there was a pile of cloth soaked with the bright orange substance.

"Slag, I'm late!"

His gaze was tugged back to her and he raised a mechanic brow ridge. "Late for what, _Human_?"

"I was supposed to meet Mudflap ten minutes ago!" She panicked as her gaze fell off her watch. "He is probably looking for me."

Barricade activated his scanner and sure enough a blue blimp appeared on his screen, indicating the presence of the Autobot Twin. If he left now, he could slip past the Autobot's signature radar.

A small smile appeared on the girl's face and her eyes twinkled. "Go." She encouraged as she took a step back to allow him room to transform.

The Decepticon nodded his helm before activating his transforming sequence. He slowly transformed, as to not re-open his shoulder injury, into his Saleen S281E Police Car alt mode. His headlights, which acted like optics in vehicle mode, gazed intently at the young girl. He swore he almost felt _sad_ that he had to leave her. He hated to admit it but the teen femme had grown on him.

He desperately hoped he would see her again, hopefully without the incident of him almost offlining. The cruiser silently swore to himself that whoever made this femme cry, human, Autobot or Decepticon, he would do everything in his power to harm them.

He began to slowly roll by her. Close enough that her hand brushed against his alt mode. He desperately wanted to feel the warmth she provided one last time. He knew it could be some time before they saw each other again.

When the warm and smooth feel of her soft skin fell off his trunk, he shot off into the night.

Annabelle Lennox just stood with her eyes trained on the doorway Barricade had shot through. Little, tingling shocks from where she had caressed Barricade raced through her body. She had a feeling that it was his way of saying _thank you_.

A smile danced across her dirty lips and her sea blue eyes began to sparkle like stars. As her heart began to beat faster at the thought of the cruiser, she began to whisper into the darkness.

"You're welcome, _Decepticon_."

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><p><em>Constructive criticism is appreciated.<em>_  
><em>_Fan art is welcomed and loved._


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